So you're looking to expand your song list…
Here are over a hundred sites on the web where you can:
- Download free sound files, lyrics and / or sheet music.
- View and listen to material for sale or free download.
- Buy material.
- Browse lists of songbooks and their contents.
- Arrange to borrow or buy multiple scores.
- Navigate to even more singing sites.
Please let us know if you come across a new site that’s not listed here, and please also advise us of any “broken links”. Your comments on the usefulness and quality of the sites you've explored would also be hugely appreciated.
Have fun surfin’! (We sincerely hope you find a great new song to sing!)
8 notes.com
Features free sheet music and lessons for many different instruments and pieces, including riffs arranged by category (classical, popular, world, etc.). The site also has a directory of over 1,000 music-related sites, a forum, and a free newsletter called Free Music Genres.
A-cappella.com
Selection of over 3,000 a cappella items. a-capella.com sell CDs, sheet music, videos and other a cappella items from all over the world to singers and music enthusiasts around the globe.
A-cappella-theater
Basic overview of a-cappella
African-American Sheet Music, 1850-1920
Selected from the Collections of Brown University (American Memory Project, Library of Congress). 1,305 pieces of African-American sheet music dating from 1850 through to 1920 (searchable by keyword). Includes subject, name and title indices.
American Choral Directors Association
Represents the serious side of singing together. There are some useful pages on this site, particularly the forum under repertoire and standards.
APRA AMCOS
We help music creators get paid for their work and give music users easy ways to legally play and copy what they like.
Australian Choral Conductors Education & Training (ACCET)
Aims to be in the forefront of choral education and training in Australia by (among many other ways) providing information on choral repertoire, literature and arranging, especially of Australian choral music.
Australian Folk Songs
The “Don Henderson Project”: lyrics of hundreds of Australian folk songs, some with scores and MIDI files.
Tony Backhouse
Singer, composer, vocal arranger, musical director, workshop leader and author, Tony Backhouse, founded the Cafe of the Gate of Salvation gospel choir and the male trio the Heavenly Lights, and also recently directed the community choir The Honeybees. His website includes info about CDs (with audio samples) and songbooks for sale as well as his publications about leadership.
Barbershop Harmony Society
Founded in 1938, the Barbershop Harmony Society preserves and extends the reach of a uniquely American close harmony musical art form whose roots lie in African-American improvisation and European harmony traditions.
The Brazilian Songbook
For singers who love Bossa Nova and desire to delve deeper into the rich and diverse vocal styles of Brazilian song. Includes 14 fully-arranged vocal scores, an instructional CD with spoken Portuguese pronunciation, guitar and percussion notation with both an aural and written guide.
Brisbane Concert Choir Music Library
Scores are lent to other choirs at a negotiable rate.
CânSing
A song bank based in Wales, UK, working to raise the profile and standard of singing across Wales. Has a large online collection of materials particularly suitable for school use – and many of which are free to be used by anyone in any location!
Choir Music 4 Free
This newly written or arranged choral music can be downloaded without charge and copied as often as you like. As a token of appreciation, you may like to make a donation to a charity. The amount of the donation is entirely up to you, as is the choice of charity.
Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL)
”The largest website devoted exclusively to free choral sheet music”. Begun in December 1998, the site has over 8,000 scores by over 1,200 composers. Free choral/vocal scores, texts, translations, and other useful information
ChoralNet
As quoted from their website, “The internet centre for choral music”:
Resources: ChoralNet's extensive resources and links include repertoire lists, reference materials, rehearsal tips, choral accessories and technology, and specialized sections for Church Music and choirs in educational institutions. Some of these are links to other websites; some are compilations of responses to requests for information on Choralist. ChoralNet also has an ever-expanding Multimedia section, with podcasts, blogs, videos, and downloadable scores and recordings.”
Cipoo.net
”Public domain choral music”.
Community Music Victoria
Hey – that’s us! (We've got three CD/songbooks of easy to teach, easy to learn rounds chants and songs for community singing) and resources and support for community singing leaders.
The Contemporary A Cappella Society (CASA)
”The source of all things a cappella” - huge selection of a cappella songbooks.
The Creole Jazz Band
Free music site offering downloads of tunes written prior to 1923 and therefore out of copyright
CyberBass
Links to sheet music / MIDI sites and a selection of choral materials.
Digital Tradition Folk Music Database
another index of the Digital Tradition Folk Music Database; you can read about the Digital Tradition at their main site at Mudcat. This version differs in that songs which have tunes have those tunes available as GIFs or PostScript scores.
earthsongs
”One World - Many Voices”. Retail sale of over 700 songs. You can listen to samples of the music prior to purchase.
Ed's Music Resources for Musicians
Extensive links to free sheet music sites and music resources, including latin and salsa music.
Faye Dumont Singers Music Library
Faye Dumont Singers Inc has an extensive choral library. There are large works, and some of these include orchestral parts; and many small (octavo) pieces. Music is available for hire if not in use by the FDS choirs. The collection is largely classical, with works from all historic eras. There are also folk, jazz, pop and theatre choral arrangements, and a wide range of Christmas selections. Australian compositions in all voicings are substantial.
Flying Pickets
Website of “Europe's No 1 a cappella group”. Website contains a discography with songlists. You can play sections of the songs
Free Sheet Music
Free downloads of public domain sheet music. Scores, lyrics, guitar chords etc
Free-Scores.com
”The Sheet Music Directory” (aka the Mundial Directory). The site contains links to many sites for free choral sheet music.
David Gadsby
Range of songbooks from this composer.
Fay White
Songbooks with great songs for group singing.
The Great Canadian Tunebook
Lyrics, notation and MIDI files.
Joanne Hammil
Songbooks and CDs from this singing leader, composer and performer.
International Association of Music Libraries - IAML (Australian Branch)
The professional organisation for those working and interested in music librarianship and the provision of information in music libraries, archives and documentation centres. At an Australian level, IAML aims to provide a forum for the discussion of issues and projects via publications and national conferences; supports the on-going education of staff and encourages access to music resources on a national level using current technology in conjunction with recognised bibliographic standards to ensure the availability of collections. IAML (Aust) aims to promote music libraries and documentation centres as part of our national cultural heritage.
International Federation of Choral Music
Worth a look.
J. W. Pepper
”world's largest sheet music retailer”
Just Sing & Just Sing Rounds
Excellent songbooks and CD for community singing by Jane Coker and Val Regan
Kantoreiarchiv
Free sheet music (more than 15000 files) for choir, orchestra, brass, recorder, organ. Full scores and parts available. The site is displayed in both German and English.
Karl's Choral Music Webpage
25 MIDI files and sheet music of songs in the Australian Intervarsity Choral Societies Association repertoire.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
The official website. Listen!
Libana
US all-women septet that 'researches and performs women's traditional and contemporary music and dance from around the globe and is dedicated to bringing the joy of singing into people's everyday lives'. Their website offers many of their CDs for sale
Lyrics.com
Huge collection of song lyrics, album information and featured video clips from endless number of artists – collaboratively assembled by contributing editors
Mark O’Leary
Mark O'Leary's product page.
The Mudcat Cafe
You can find and download so many songs here
Musescore
“Sheetmusic at your fingertips”
Music44
On line retailer of choral sheet music.
Music Exchange
UK-based on-line retailer of sheet music, printed music books and audio-visual music publications and products.
Musica International: The Virtual Choral Library
A choral documentary search tool as well as a pedagogic tool for conductors, musicologists, schools of music, musical federations, music stores (etc.) but it is also for amateurs and people eager to know about the choral music repertoire. It fits perfectly as a database to manage a choral music library in a cooperative way with other libraries. It will be as necessary tool for a choral conductor as his (or her) tuning fork or pitch pipe. MUSICA is a project whose goals are to gather information on all choral music of the world into this single research tool. It is an international project, and the database is therefore multilingual (French, German, English and Spanish), and contains over 150,000 references.
MusiCalion.Com
”On-line music library”
musicnotes.com
Online sales source.
Musicroom
”The world's largest music store”.
The Mutopia Project
All music in the Mutopia Project is free to download, print, perform and distribute. There are now 2057 pieces of public domain or creative commons music available. download it, print it out and share it! Mutopia is similar in spirit to Project Gutenberg, but consists of free sheet music. Broadly speaking, copyright on a creative work expires 70 years after the creator's death. This means that the works of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and many other composers are now in the public domain, which means in principle, they may be copied and performed without restriction. The idea behind the Mutopia Project is that volunteers typeset these editions on a computer, using the GNU Lilypond typesetting software, then make them freely available. The Mutopia Project also contains a growing number of modern editions, arrangements and new music. The respective editors, arrangers and composers involved have chosen to make these works freely available. All may be freely downloaded, printed, copied, distributed, modified, performed or recorded.
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
A great site for children's songs, with soundbites and lyrics available for download.
National Library of Australia: Music Catalogue
A complete listing of items in their music collection can be found on The National Music Lending Scheme (MLS, see next entry).
The National Music Lending Scheme (MLS)
The MLS for Choral Scores has been run by the Canberra Choral Society for over 25 years, and is now accessible via the internet. While anyone can browse and search the musical holdings, only current subscribers can locate scores for borrowing purposes.
Natural Voice Network
British network of voice teachers who share a common ethos and approach to voice work. They believe that singing is everyone's birthright and are committed to teaching styles which are accepting and inclusive of all, regardless of musical experience and ability. The link above will provide you with a connection to the resource page of their website.
New Songs for Peace
This UNESCO-endorsed ‘New Songs for Peace” project is intended to encourage people to think about peace, talk about peace, and write a new song which we will collect and self-publish in a book.
New Zealand Folk Song
Sheet music, sound files, background.
Nick Page
US singing leader with a resource page worthy of serious study.
Nickomo and Rasullah
”Books and CDs - Songs for Choirs and Groups”, includes mp3 samples.
Note Perfect
Resources for Choral Singers and Soloists including a lot of downloadable sheet music for sale in may genres
Online sheet music
You can buy sheet music online here.
Pass it around
Songbook descriptions from this organisation which promotes singing among marginalised communities.
Paul Jarman
Paul Jarman is an Australian multi-instrumentalist, composer and choirmaster. Preview, listen to and buy his songs here
Planet Patriot
Has links to “Earth Song” and “Peace Song” songbooks, albums, websites, artists and lyrics.
Primarily A Cappella
A wide selection of both a cappella and accompanied vocal harmony arrangements of many different styles and voicings.
The Print Musicworks
”Australia's internet print music store”.
Ralph McTell
A free download of his songs with chords for ukulele, by John Timney
Rise Up Singing
Details of the ultimate group singing songbook.
Betsy Rose
Songs from the founder of the Jericho Harmonics Project.
Rounds Galore
Samples, links and purchase details for infinite rounds.
San Jose Ukulele Club
The SJUC Song Book consists of SJUC formatted song sheets for personal and eductational use. If you like our song sheets and use them for personal enjoyment or in your own ukulele clubs, let us know! Thanks!
Sing Me In: Collective Singing in the Integration Process of Young Migrants. Collective singing is a great tool to help the integration of people from different cultures and backgrounds. European Choral Association has developed 4 handbooks to help you set up your own projects in different contexts.
Santa Barbara Music Publishing
”Dedicated to nurturing the choral art”. A huge selection of songs for “looking and listening” only.
Score On-line
Download sheet music for free. Allows users to select and e-mail scores, from their growing selection of works, from the standard repertoire by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, Schumann, and others. Includes new compositions posted by members.
Peggy Seeger
Her songs and songboks.
Scout Songs
Compilation of camp songs that are popular at Scout camps
The Session
The exchange of tunes is what keeps traditional Irish music alive. This website is one way of passing on jigs, reels and other dance tunes. Some of the tunes are well known, and some are more obscure. It's this mixture of the familiar and the new that makes for a good session.
Sharesong
Place where Christian songwriters can publish their worship music (mp3s, midi, sheet music, chord charts, OHTs & lyric sheets) and provide churches, worship pastors and home groups around the world the opportunity to access and use it freely.
Sheet Music Web
Attempting to build the web's largest collection of links to sites containing downloadable sheet music. The sites aren't reviewed, although the more popular and / or well-designed sites may be listed in bold.
sheetmusicplus.com
The ”world's biggest selection”.
SheetMusicSearch
As it claims.
Sing!
Sing!1975 – 2014 song index published by ABC (in pdf format).
Sing Out Publications
Great songs! Sing Out!'s mission is to preserve and support the cultural diversity and heritage of all traditional and contemporary folk music, and to encourage making folk music a part of our everyday lives.
Singing for Snorers
A complete programme on CD of singing exercises specifically designed to reduce snoring caused by lax muscles in the upper throat.
Songs for Teaching
”Using Music to Promote Learning”. As quoted on their website, “Creative teachers can use music to teach content across the curriculum - to students of all ages. Educational experts bring you tested ideas for using the magic of music in your lesson plans. This site contains thousands of pages for you to peruse - many with lyrics, sound clips, and teaching suggestions. The top educational pros offer practical suggestions based on the latest in brain-based learning. Innovative teachers share their classroom pointers and extension activities using children's music. Songs from a wide variety of popular artists are presented by academic subject. (You can) find educational music and children's songs that complement your lesson plans as well as camp fire songs . . . .
Sweet Honey in the Rock
Details of Continuum: The First Songbook of Sweet Honey in the Rock Contemporary A Cappella Publishing (exclusively distributed by Hal Leonard Corporation and available from Allans).
Sydney Conservatorium of Music Library
This collection reflects the courses, performance and research needs of staff and students. Ranges from early music to current avant-garde, including jazz and popular music. It includes scores (many with multiple-copies), CDs, vinyl recordings, books, orchestral sets and journals. The conservatorium’s aim is to maintain a representative collection of Australian performers and composers, particularly if they were previously involved with the conservatorium or the Sydney music scene.
Symphony Services Australia: National Music Library
The principal collection for the Symphony Australia orchestral network, it used to be called the Federal Music Library and the ABC Print Music Library. Holdings include over 13,000 choral scores. Part of the collection is available for hire to organisations outside the Symphony Australia orchestral network. This service is limited to customers in the Asia-Pacific region (only non-copyright music is available for hire outside this region).
Taize and Brother Roger
A religious community in Burgundy France. Provides sheet music and midi files for a bunch of beautiful religious songs.
Total Choir Resources
Tools, tips and training for choir and singing group leaders. Podcasts, warm ups and downloadable pdf's of songs are all available!
Urban Lyrebirds
Using song to teach English - beautiful singing resources suitable for all learners of English.
University of Melbourne, Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Library
Has an extensive collection of choral sets. These, if not required for use by the Faculty of Music, may be hired by other organisations. Choral Scores are hired per copy plus postage (where incurred). Additional costs may be incurred if material is returned late, incomplete or damaged.
Victorian Orff Schulwerk Association
the largest provider of professional development in music and movement in Australia. The merchandise page of this association of teachers and supporters of music education.
Virtual Sheet Music
Provides (for a fee) downloadable copies of classical works from the 17th to 20th centuries which can be subsequently displayed and / or printed.
Virtual Campfire A place for Forest School Campers to learn and teach traditional songs online.
Vocal Union
On this website you will find material for use in your school, choir or community group. All songs have been credited either as traditional (non-copyright) or as new material reproduced here with permission. Please contact us if you have more information about any songs.
Welcome to Music
Provides ”everything you need to make teaching music easy and fun”. This is their product page.
World Music Press
”Top quality, award-winning multicultural music books, recordings and choral music for educators, community outreach programs and music lovers.” No sound samples are available, but this looks like great stuff!
The Catalog of Music written and published by Dr. Ysaye M. Barnwell (of Sweet Honey In The Rock)